什么是传说中的英国绅士准则……

什么是传说中的英国绅士准则……

作者: 《英国老帽儿》之大卫·派思翻译：?神秘北大团队图片：英国老帽儿们原创内容/图片/翻译

～英国老帽儿～第24期，欢迎关注最纯英伦风！欢迎转发（转载请联系hello@）“讲礼节无需付出什么，却能赢得一切”……大卫·派思同英国最著名的礼节专家之一畅谈。

‘Politeness costs nothing and gains everything’, says one of Britain’s leading etiquette expert s. David Price has the pleasure of his company…“没有什么比排队更公平了”，威廉·汉森用他那美妙的语调说道。刚开始，你不会觉得这位慈眉善目的绅士会是一个较真的人，但在随后的交谈中，他展现了自己严肃的态度。“这是一种艺术，好比是有规则的游戏。当有人存心违反如此简单明了的规则时，会叫人非常不安。他们贬低了自己……”

“There is nothing fairer than a queue,” says the beautifully spoken William Hanson. A gentle man with a kind face who you wouldn’t expect to take things too seriously, he nevertheless says it with an iron resolve. “It is an art form, a kind of sport. It’s very simple and straightforward and it is quite upsetting when we see someone break that rule. They let themselves

down…”

在某些方面，英国是一个非常自由的国度——在这里，你几乎可以做任何自己喜爱的事情而不受到干涉。但在另一方面，英国人被一些社会礼节紧紧制约，这使英国社会保持了几个世纪以来的稳定——具有讽刺意味的是，很多礼节其实是从革命前的法国进口过来的。“这可以追溯到路易十四时代，”汉森说。

In some respects, Britain is an extremely free country – you can pretty much do anything you like here, and people won’t interfere. On the other hand, the British are tightly bound by a code of conduct that has kept a stable society for many centuries – something that, ironically, was imported from

pre-revolutionary France. “It goes back to the time of Louis

14th,” says Ha nson.

“当时的礼节（Etiquette）是一种行为规范，旨在把普通人从贵族中排斥（exclude）出来。法国贵族躲避断头台逃亡时，带着自己的礼节来到了英国。这些贵族不凡的品位，外加英国式的‘克制’，结合产生了被人视为理想的生活方式。这种礼节剥离了最初法国精英主义的成分，成为了一种普罗大众的相处方式。”

“Etiquette was a code of conduct designed to exclude common people from the royal court. When French aristocrats later

escaped to England, running from the guillotine, they brought it with them. Their fine taste, combined with English restraint, became regarded as a desirable way to live. But it was no longer elitist, it became a way for everyone to get on with one another.”礼节，或多数英国人口中的“优雅举止”（good manners）旨在包容（inclusive）所有人。它是一种表态的方式：说明自己在各种层面上融入社会和工作的意愿。

Etiquette, or as most people call it here, ‘good manners’, is inclusive. It’s a way of signalling your intention to fit in with society and works on a number of levels.

礼节是为他人着想的基本礼貌，它还表现为好品位——以微妙委婉的方式，向外界传达自己的完善和成熟。

It’s basic human courtesy and consideration for others, and it’s good taste – a way of broadcasting to people that you have refinement and sophistication, but in a subtle and

non-intimidating way.

表面上，许多从英国蔓延到广大西方世界中的社会习俗，都给人一种繁文缛节的感觉。然而汉森强调，当你细想起来，它们其实是让人们在各种不同的场合下感到放松而已。

On the face of it, many of the social conventions that started in Britain – and spread out to the wider western world – are really rather trivial. Yet when you think about them, argues Hanson,